I love the website gcsemathsquestions.co.uk, which I first featured back in Gems 155. It has PowerPoints of GCSE questions from three exam boards, sorted by topic. I find this really helpful. A new addition to this website is a calculator resource. It features GCSE questions that allow students to practise each calculator skill, including prime factorisation, ratio and mean from a table, and QR codes so students can see video explanations of how to answer each question using calculator functions. I plan to use this resource in a revision lesson with Year 11 in a couple of weeks.
2. AI Updates
I’ve blogged about using AI in maths teaching a couple of times before:
I thought it might be useful to use my gems posts to occasionally update readers about AI related developments in the world of maths education.
- @MattTheApp has created an AI maths chatbot called the Eden Project – check out this tweet to see the kind of thing he’s doing with it.
- Lots of schools are experiencing problems with students using AI to cheat on Sparx and other homework platforms – you can normally tell by the speed at which they complete their homework. There’s a thread about this here.
- @hartmaths tried using AI to help create a gap fill activity on volume. This is what it came up with:
3. A Level Statistics
@mrwhatleymaths.bsky.social has generously shared his work on A Level Statistics. There are very few resources available for this qualification so this will be incredibly helpful for any school that runs, or is considering running, A Level Statistics. There’s some crossover with other qualifications too. Oliver’s resources and scheme of work can be downloaded here.
@melissamaths‘s team have had a big focus on mathematical literacy and Tier 3 vocabulary this year and have created a bank of key words and command words across all three Key Stages. The words have student friendly definitions, alongside an image of the ‘word in action’. You can download this word bank here.
It’s a great idea to set a challenge task along the lines of ‘find another expression that fits the pattern’.
Conference
It’s only two weeks until #mathsconf37 in Sheffield. It’s not too late to book tickets. There’s a great lineup of workshops and I really encourage maths teachers to attend if they’ve never been to one of these conferences before. It’s always a great day out.
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